Wow, where has the time gone? It seems like just yesterday Seattle was lifting the cup and capping off the 2019 season. The 2020 season looks set to be one of the most competitive in league history. The league also welcome two new entrants as well in Miami and Nashville respectively. So many questions. Will Chicharito take MLS by storm? Will FC Cincinnati be competent (not looking good thus far....)? Will Vancouver show improvement? Can TFC's stars fight off father time? Will the rebrand and move to Soldier Field start to resuscitate the Chicago Fire? Can the Philadelphia Union follow up and possibly improve on their 2019 season? Will Orlando City actually follow through with their rebuild this time?Which of the new head coaches will have the most success this season? Can the Crew continue their momentum since ridding themselves of PSV? So.Many.Questions! And these are just scratching the surface! On to business shall we? As always, game times are eastern. National TV games are listed as such, all other games can be streamed via ESPN+. Remember, this is a NEUTRAL thread. In other words, keep all rivalry shenanigans out of here. Saturday, February 29 DCU vs COL 1:00PM MTL vs NER 3:00PM HOU vs LAG 3:30PM UniVision / Twitter SJE vs TFC 5:30PM FCD vs PHL 6:00PM ORL vs RSL 6:00PM NSH vs ATL 8:00PM FOX VAN vs SKC 10:30PM Sunday, March 1 CBS vs NYC 12:30PM NYR vs FCC 1:00PM SEA vs CHI 3:00PM ESPN LAX vs MIA 5:30PM ESPN POR vs MNU 7:30PM FS1
I know. I remember when, courtesy of Direct Kick, you could literally watch every match played in the league (which I often did). Now, it would take a special kind of someone to do that.
I'm aware this is happening, but I have no idea what to watch. Bennyball doesn't interest me even when it's good, the Texas teams don't seem like they're really trying to win, Chicago's new logo looks like you could flip it horizontal and pretend an autobot is talking to you, Nashville and Miami are different kinds of boring, and it's all so meh at this point. Hopefully something sticks out early in the season to catch my interest.
Wait, Miami has a team playing in Ft. Lauderdale now? Man, I remember when Miami had a team playing in Ft. Lauderdale.
I'm not sure how you can draw conclusions on any team right now, sight unseen. There always are surprises at the beginning of the season of who has improved a great deal and who has gotten much worse. More in MLS than in most sports. Except, of course, surely the Galaxy will disappoint.
Y'all haven't yet satisfied the mandatory pre-Toast Thread whining quota. I'd like this entire 2020 season to be toast. And to hell with 2021 too. What really matters is 2022!
Just me but I think that's effin' awesome! So many options and storylines available, and I think it gives credence to the league that now there's a value to scoreboard watching. Plus it may seem childish or simplistic but I think it will help the league resonate with casual US fans by having the sheer volume on tap. Where once MLS was maybe 1 minute of SportsCenter or an "Other News" filler in the sports pages now it's creeping its way into the regular scene. Now those halftime shows have a lot more other games to talk about. Stuff like that gives the league a little more relatable feel to the traditional US sports fan.
I say, in preparation for the 2022 season, you start the 2020 season thread now. That way you have a two year run up time on 2022.